Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
by C. D. Francis
Summary: Peter Pan was just a story Emma read to Molly when she couldn't fall asleep. It suddenly became so much more when she finds out her fate is forever intertwined with Neverland... and Neverland is dying. Pirates, Fairies, and Romance? Yes, please!


_It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.  
-Henry David Thoraeu _

**Chapter One**

"Emma? Emma? Wake up Emma, wake up!"

Someone was violently shaking me, pulling me out of my dream of an emerald sword.

"What?" I screamed, surprised. My dream immediately snapped out of my head. I shot up and my room in the orphanage shattered into bright focus. Basically everything was polished wood, and then there were our beds, with big quilts with creepy cats on them. This was the lowest budget orphanage in all of England. They could at least afford like, quilts that didn't give you nightmares. I turned to the person who had been shaking me.

"What Molly?" I asked, annoyed. What was my dream about? I couldn't remember for the life of me. Molly was 7, eight years younger than me. She had a habit of waking me up.

"Come on Emma! Come on! Today is the day of the field trip!" She said jumping up and down, her penguin slippers padding the floor. I watched her pigtails fly into the air five times before I grabbed her arm.

"Oh yes, I remember now." I told her, undoing her brown hair. I slid my hand through its softness. I loved doing her hair. It reminded me of something, I just couldn't place what.

I braided her hair into pigtails and she fingered them, rubbing her fingers on them.

"Don't touch Molly! You'll mess it up!" I said, slapping her hand lightly and smiling.

"Sorry Emma. You just do a good job." She smiled and then hopped out of the room, sliding across the polished floors. Our orphanage had managed to scrape up some extra money and today was the day she had been counting down to, the day of the field trip. We were going to some string museum in east London. I think she was mostly exited because we were actually leaving the orphanage grounds. Most children had never left the grounds, and even the older ones had only done it once or twice. Then again, the adults didn't know I left almost every night. I had discovered a hole in the fence, and managed to leave every night and come back unnoticed. Not to brag, but it was a talent.

I ran downstairs to eat breakfast with the other kids. It was boring to say the least, but I at least had Molly's chatting to keep me awake. Finally, the time came to leave for the fieldtrip. Molly pulled me to sit by her on the bus. It was supposed to be a two hour bus ride, so of course, Molly wanted me to tell her a story.

"Well, what do you want to hear?" I asked. She was laying down on my lap.

"Peter Pan!" She cried. Of course. That was her favorite story of all time. I must have told it a hundred times. It was a wonder she never got tired of hearing it.

"Okay then" I smiled. I started off with the original, 'Mystical boy who never grew up' thing, then went into the darling children. By the time they got to Neverland and they were in the mermaids lagoon, she was asleep. I let her sleep as the bus rumbled on and on. All of the sudden, a voice came over the loud speaker.

*There has been a change of plans* it said. It sounded like the bus driver. According to my sixteen year old friends, he was 'Too hot and young to be driving a public bus'. We were riding on a public bus, since we didn't have a private one.

*You will no longer go to the string museum, but the JM Barrie memorial museum.* The voice said, then clicked off. Oh joy, we get to go to a dead guys old house. The voice had woken Molly up.

"Huh?" She said groggily, her eyes out of focus.

"We're not going to the string museum any more" I said, hugging her.

"What?" She cried looking at me like I was the policeman who brings you the news your kitten was hit by a car.

"No, no, no. We're still going to a museum, just a different one." I told her quickly to calm her down.

"Oh." She smiled and went back to sleep almost immediately. I grinned and shook my head. Little kids amazed me. I remembered I was only nine when they took me to the orphanage. I had no memory from before then, so all that I could paste together of my past was that I was in a car crash and I lost my memory. Well, at least, I assumed it was a car crash because all I could remember was a bright flash of light and then fire. I was found wandering around London covered in ashes and looking confused. Eventually, a constable found me wandering around and after a long search for any relatives (DNA or otherwise) they dropped me off at an orphanage that just took kids for free… considering their budget.

The bus slammed to a stop in front of an ancient building, jolting me out of my memory. I shook Molly slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Is it breakfast time?" She asked timidly. I smiled.

"No Molly, we're here, at the museum!" I told her. She jumped up excitedly.

"Yippee!" She said and pulled my hand to get in line for the kids filing off the bus. I looked around to see where Stephen went, but he was gone. 'Hmm' I thought. 'I wonder where he went.'

But by the time I finished that thought, we were off the bus and heading inside. Molly was jumping up and down excitedly, because she'd never been to a museum before. The line of children slowly moved foreword, then FINALLY, it was our turn to go in.

The first thing I noticed about the house was that it was… unusual. Like someone or something had been there, a long time ago… I wasn't sure what it was like, but it sure was different. It smelled funny. In a good, interesting way, not a bad, fungus way.

We were free to tour the house like we wanted, there were tons of paintings of flying boys and pirates on the wall. Then it hit me. Of course! J.M. Barrie was the author who wrote Peter Pan. Examining the pictures closer, there wasn't a single one of Captain Hook. I asked Molly if she wanted to go upstairs, and she said yes. We walked upstairs to see what was up there. There were three rooms, and the first room that caught my eye was, what the label said, "Study". Obviously that's where he studied, right?

Molly quickly found the room with the toys. I wondered why they were there, because he never had children. I let her run free, then I opened the door to the Study. Inside, there was a bookshelf with countless books, a closet, and an ancient writing desk. The plaque glued to the desk said:

"This is the original desk where the renowned fairy tale _Peter Pan _was penned."

'How interesting.' I thought. I walked up to the desk, letting my finger slide along the edge. There was a chair behind it. I wondered if it was off limits to sit there. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, I silently slid into the chair. Hmm… It felt wonderful to be sitting in the chair where such a famous book had been written. I wondered if the desk was locked. I reached down to open the drawer. Dang. It was locked. The key had to be around here somewhere… Then I noticed something I didn't see when I first glanced at the drawer. There was one of those sliding locks with numbers on it. There were two slots, with two digits each. Hey, it's not like I was going to guess it, right? I decided to put in my birthday, just for fun.

_12/15_

All of the sudden, the faint sound of children's voices I had been hearing seconds before were suddenly silent. All I heard was the _click_ of the lock and the spring sound of the drawer popping open. I was suddenly aware of the fact that the room was so dusty, you could see it through the little light that escaped through the boarded window. It seemed to shine right inside the drawer.

I slid the drawer open, curious as to what was in it. It obviously hadn't been opened for a LONG time. Hoping to find some historical documents of great value, maybe a rare copy of the first draft of _Peter Pan_, all that was in there was a small sack. I lifted it up. It was heavier then I thought it would be, as if it was filled with sand. All of the sudden, I heard shouting of men's deep voices, and grunts.

"Aaarg, check upstairs!" I heard one say. Wait, I was upstairs. And something about the harsh voices alarmed me. Not scared me, but alerted me in a way that put adrenaline in my veins. My eyes darted around the study as I heard footsteps rumbling closer and closer, running up the stairs. I slid the small sack into my pocket, seeing a closet, on the south wall, on the wall right of the window wall. Opening it quickly, darting in, and shutting it was all I had time to do before the men slammed opened the door to the study.

Peering through the small crack in the door, I held my breath so I wouldn't breathe in all the dust I had stirred up through the air. It would most defiantly make me cough, or sneeze. I watched as a short, fat man, a tall skinny man, a bald man with an eye patch, and a burly man tromp through the study. They were dressed up in pirate costumes. For all I knew, it certainly wasn't Halloween. They certainly didn't try not to make a lot of noise, overturning pictures, and finally, they made it to the desk.

"Well well," the short fat man said, looking at the plaque. "It says, 'Fairy Dust Here'. " The tall skinny man hit the short fat man.

"Shut up Rocko, you know as well as me it says 'JM Barrie wroted Peter Pan' "

The short man, who I assumed was Rocko, hit the tall skinny man, and said, "You shut up Tinley. You knows I can read as well as anyone." Tinley crosses his arms. "I can reads very well better then YOU can." The bald guy, looking very menacingly with his eye patch, glared at them with his one eye.

"Shut up the both of you. We're not here to READ, we're here to do was Jas told us to do." The bald guy said, rubbing his temples. Rocko shuffled his feet, and Tinley scratched his head. I couldn't hold my breath any longer. I slowly let it out, being careful not to breathe in. All of the sudden, I could feel the dust tickling my throat and my nose, and at the same time, I coughed and sneezed. Really loud.

"What was that?" Tinley asked, narrowing his eyes. Rocko, the bald guy, Tinley, and the burly man all turned and stared at the closet I was in at that very moment, holding my breath and trying not to move.

"Whoa, Tinley, did ya hear that? The closet just coughed!" Rocko said exitedly, pointing.

"Shut up Rocko, I knows as well as you that it sneezed." Tinley replied stubbornly. The bald guy rubbed his temple again, and then strut towards the closet door. I tensed up as he reached towards the doorknob. He stopped, then turned to Rocko, Tinley, and the burly man.

"You idiots. It wasn't the closet that sneezed, it was the person who was in it!" He then opened the closet door.

I was frozen in place staring at them. I wasn't sure if I had terrified look on my face, or what. But when they saw me standing there, their surprised faces turned to shock. The eyepatch man was speechless.

"But _how_?" He asked, no one in particular. I finally got the courage to speak up.

"Who… are… you?" I said slowly, pointing at each of them individually. I didn't want to make them mad. The bald eye patch man just raised his eyebrows at me.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Um," I said, confused.

"Hahaha, that's funny, funny joke," Tinley said, smacking his knee.

"Tinley, shut up, I think she's serious," said Rocko, elbowing him. Tinley stopped grinning at once.

"So you're serious? Really?" He gawked at me. The bald eye patch man turned to them.

"She is too serious. Now you need to shut up. Hook will be VERY pleased. Now SHUT UP."

"Yes sir. Sorry sir." Rocko said, trying to keep a straight face. I couldn't see anything funny about the situation.

"What, you think my name is funny?" The eye patch man said menacingly.

"N—no _Sir_," he choked, trying not to laugh. Ahhh. I got it. The eye patch man's name was Sir. Who the heck would name their son Sir? That was like naming your daughter Madam or Ma'am. I grinned.

"What's so funny?" Sir turned to me. I swore he had eyes in the back of his head. Maybe that's why he had an eye patch. The missing one was on the back of his head. The burly man towered over me, cracking his knuckles.

"N-nothing." I stuttered, snapping to attention. Sir grinned in malicious triumph, and turned to Rocko and Tinley.

"Okay you imbeciles," he said, glaring again. I registered it in my mind as his trademark. "We need to get what we came for. Now, if you would have LISTENED to me before, you would have realized that Hook said it was in the desk."

Rocko and Tinley stumbled over to the desk, flipping it onto it's side. Tinley pulled out what looked like a sword. Oh my gosh, he was going to smash the desk. He couldn't do that! It was a historical figure! It was probably protected by the government… or something.

Before I knew something was coming out, I shouted "Wait! Stop!"

Tinley froze, sword in midair.

Sir glared at me.

"You can't destroy that! It has historical value!" I cried, stepping forward. I stopped when the burly man cracked his knuckles.

"_You can't destroy that! It has historical value!_" Rocko mocked in a fake high pitched voice. I glared at him.

"Just OPEN the drawers. Sheesh, why do you feel the need to break everything you see?" Hearing the words come out of my mouth surprised me. Just moments before, I had been frozen in fear. What changed? I immediately snapped my mouth shut. I had a feeling smart talking these freaks wasn't going to get me anywhere. I glanced at the burly man. He was staring into space. I figured he was there just in case they came across trouble. Oddly enough, Tinley slid the sword back in his side case, and opened the drawer, the only drawer in the desk.

"Uh, Sir, we have a problem." Rocko said uneasily. Sir stomped over to the desk, looking inside the drawer.

"It's _not there_?" Sir screeched. If he wasn't ticked off before, he was now.

"Seems so." Tinley said nervously, scratching his head. Sir spat on the ground in anger (ew!) but then he seemed to remember me standing there watching this ordeal awkwardly. He then grinned nastily, showing all his not-so-pearly whites.

"I think Hook will feel forgive us if we bring her back with said, snapping his fingers. The burly man instantly grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. Whoa, hold on. They were kidnapping me? I struggled against the burly mans lock, but no avail. I was stuck, no way of getting out of it.

* * *

What do you think? Please review :) After I have 15 reviews I will put up Chapter Two. Come on, it only takes one click of the mouse! And if you're reviewing, please answer these questions:  
1. A Peter romance? Or is that too over used?  
2. What are your opinions of love triangles? ;)  
3. What was your favorite line?


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